Estelle Nuka: Life coach, consultant, author

“My life purpose is to help others live a happy, fulfilling
life and grow in their spiritual, personal and economic lives,” says Estelle
Nuka, life coach and founder of EWN (Estelle Wongani Nuka) Consulting and
Training.

She has worked with several establishments, especially in
the financial sector.

Today, she dedicates her life to guiding women and men to
live productive lives and avoid financial burdens.

Nuka has coached over 50 women and she counts having trained
more than 500 individuals.

Her recent contribution is to the number two bestseller book
on Amazon Success University for Women, which aims at
helping women going through challenges as they navigate through life and
careers.

The book was co-authored by 24 other women world-wide who
have experienced tragedy, failure, losses; each rising above the darkness and
finding a way through it all.

Nuka’s story in the book is titled ‘The mortal vehicle’s
fuel of success’.

In the story, she describes her life trials, inlcuding the
ups and downs in her career and how perseverance made her the woman she is
today.

Fourth-born of nine children, Estelle was born in 1966 to a
policeman and housewife. Her parents raised three other children.

Growing up in the 1970s, she says meeting their daily needs
proved difficult for her parents.

She recalls a time, in primary school, when her father
failed to pay school fees for everyone.

She says despite the challenges, her father did his best, to
give them an education, though he did not earn much.

Estelle went through several primary schools and she finally
completed her Standard Eight at Limbe Girls’ (St. Maria Goretti) Primary
School.

She went to Stella Maris for her secondary school education
and to University of Malawi’s Polytechnic for a three-year diploma in business,
then a Bachelor in Commerce, where she majored in accountancy.

In her fourth year of her degree chase, she landed an
internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers, an auditing company.

Upon completion after five years, she was offered a job to
be based in Mozambique.

It was in 1989, when the Mozambican civil war, which had
killed over one million of its population, was in its 15th year; to audit
Cahora Bassa, an arch dam and hydroelectric facility on the Zambezi River.

Nuka is the fourth woman to work for Pricewaterhouse
Coopers, which at the time had a policy for no female employees.

“I did not think PricewaterhouseCoopers would send me there.
Me and the entire team went there by a chartered plane and heard of how other
planes were being gunned down,” she says.

But she does not count that as her biggest challenge yet.

In 1990, Estelle got married, had a son in 1991 and switched
jobs in 1992 to raise her son. In 1993, she enrolled for studies to qualify for
the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca).

During her second employment with Women World Banking (WWB),
a donor funded project in 1993, Nuka was pregnant with her second child and was
hit hard with her greatest trial.

“I was heavily pregnant and about to sit for my (Acca) exams. I had not been paid for a year and was informed I could only get paid if I filled the hourly time sheets for work done at the office. It was impossible as I was studying,” she says.

Her husband was working for Admarc at the time, a public
servant whose salary was not adequate.

In addition to her son, she and her husband were raising
eight other dependants.

She says since she was due to have her second child, she sat
down to write a letter to her mum, asking her to come and care for her baby as
she wrote her examinations.

But before she could write the letter, she got word that her
mother had died.

“It had to be my father because he had been sick, my mother
was well,” she recalls.

Upon reaching home, she found two corpses—both her father
and her mother.

Although the future
looked bleak for Nuka, she never gave up on education. She fought through the
pain of loss, lack of finances, wrote her examinations and qualified.

Prior to setting up EWN Consulting & Training in 2014,
Nuka worked in various institutions and served on several boards.

Looking back to 25 years (the period she has worked for
several companies) and beyond on how she was able to handle school, work and a
family, she says she owes her success to her father who always told her she is
intelligent.

As a woman, the only challenge she recalls was balancing
work and home.

In terms of the workplace, Nuka says she is assertive and
does not allow to be marginalised.

She has written a book in honour of her mother title Mama
You Are a Hero.

Nuka is a fellow of Acca, a registered member of the Malawi
Accountants Board and Institute of Accountants in Malawi.

In her firm she provides consulting, training and coaching
services for corporations and individuals on financial management, leadership
and principles of success and transformation. n